A reader in Ohio writes: This is one
of the people who is making law on public schools in
Ohio: “Powell legislator stirs controversy
over views on public schools Two weeks after
calling public education “socialism” and saying it should be
privatized, state Rep. Andrew Brenner said of those criticizing him
with vulgarities: “I’m guessing those people had a public
education.” The Powell Republican and vice chairman of the House
Education Committee wrote another column this week on his wife’s
website, Brenner Brief News, criticizing those who took issue with
his previous column.” He’s the new vice-chair
on the education committee. His goal is to get rid of our 150 year
old system of public schools, because it’s “socialism”.
When he’s called on it, he responds by attacking every
person in the state who attended public schools, which of course is
the vast majority of people in the state. You
really can’t make this stuff up. It’s like open season on public
ed.
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According to the Columbus Dispatch article I read about him, his wife the blogger also published an article with the headline “Was Sandy Hook a hoax to push for more gun controls?” I don’t get the blog but I’m guessing the answer to the headline question was “yes”?
GST you should read the book The Party is Over: Why Republicans went crazy and the Democrats became useless. It tells why our country has gone to hell.
I’m an Ohioan. There was a time when the state was on the threshold of advancement, both socially and economically. But then, the Bush presidency bankrupted the nation and the state’s citizens reverted to their fears. The Dayton Daily News and WHIO reported on a St. Mary’s School Board (a public school) member, who posted comments online that were racially offensive. He, then gave a contrived excuse.
The St. Mary’s school superintendent deserves praise for responding to the comments in a way that would make people think the community, at large, might be receptive to people of color. Bottom line, the Koch thinking and probably money, is inextricably linked to the lawmakers and leadership of Ohio. Anybody reading this, if you’re in the state, try to change things by voting Democratic but, look to get out, eventually.
Why would anyone in Powell elect this nut job??? It always amazes me how many kooks are in office and how the Republican party is in a downward spiral.
It’s in such a downward spiral it is about to take control of the US Senate.
What is certainly in a downward spiral is the Democratic Party, mainly because it has become the conservative wing of the far right fascist Republican Party and doesn’t even have the guts to call out fools like Brenner and demonstrate some leadership to the people. Our nation is in sad shape.
And here I thought Arizona took the cake when it came to electing nutcases… This even makes some of them look pretty good.
I hope someone can determine who “taught” or “scripted” this person’s rhetoric equating public schools with socialism, and by extension all public institutions with the intent of securing democratic governance “of, by, and for the people.”
By this legislator’s own logic, socialists must have elected him to public office. The scary part is not just the ignorance and paranoia, but the fact that he is an elected official.
If Republican legislators say nothing to condemn this rhetoric then they are tacitly supporting anarchy or a dictatorship in lieu of governance of, by, and for the people.
Or perhaps Republicans will have to admit that they are trafficking in socialism as they pursue any public office.
Perhaps this is why across the country some states are not funding state pensions. USA Today article in todays paper says New Jersey is $3.9 billion behind in funding.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Didn’t understand you– perhaps what is why some states are not funding pensions?
3.9B is just the amount that was recommended to be paid by NJ into state pensions in 2015 (tho Christie is only putting in 2.25B, still a record-hi pmt). NJ is actually 52B behind in funding state pensions (!) The underfunding goes back many years, mostly by Democrats.
You are correct about New Jersey being short by $52 billion in funding state pensions going back over the years under both Democratic and Republican control. So-called “socialism” is being attacked and obstructed from all directions.
His goal is to get rid of our 150 year old system of public schools, because it’s
“socialism”.
Calling it “Socialism” is a test on how well the “Dogs” respond to the use of “Silent Dog
Whistle” words (socialism). The SDW words target emotional connections blurring Educated connections.
While “Educated” can be emotional, is the “Default” mode of the “Educated”
emotional? Are actions not the residue of consciousness?
In other words, if the masses can be “Tripped” by the use of SDW words, are they
Educated?
I wonder why he doesn’t call out the military as “socialist”. Holy cow they are paid by the taxpayers and have more subsidized perks than anyone.
He’s the vice chair of the Ohio House education committee:
“America’s public education system is “socialism” and should be privatized, the vice chairman of the Ohio House Education Committee wrote in a recent online column.
“We need to do something that was done about 25 years ago in the former Soviet Union and eastern bloc: sell off the existing buildings, equipment and real estate to those in the private sector,” wrote state Rep. Andrew Brenner, a Republican from Powell, on Brenner Brief News, a website operated by his wife.
Brenner, himself a graduate of the Delaware, Ohio, public school system, said government control over education has led to many of the concerns raised with schools today, including standardized testing, Common Core standards, and powerful teachers’ unions.
Handing control over to the free market, he said, would eliminate the need for such standards and testing, as schools that fail to provide a good education will go out of business.”
Of course, he went to public schools, as did the vast majority of people in this state.
In his case, that led to his chairing the House education committee!
Public schools apparently became failure factories the moment he grabbed his free education at the school the generations prior to him paid for and built and walked out the door.
Now he wants to sell the asset off and turn title of a publicly-owned investment over to a private interest so we’ll all be renters or consumers purchasing a service instead of owners.
No one in their right mind would ever take that deal. Not generally considered a good idea to go from owner to renter in your own town. Reject that advice, and cast a very wary eye on anyone who tells you it’s a “win/win”. You lose.
http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2014/03/ohio_lawmaker_americas_public.html
He also seems to be mistaken about Russian public education, so that might be another reason (if one were needed!) not to take his advice and sell Ohio public schools:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Russia
Maybe he was thinking of factories in the former Soviet Union, given the penchant for describing local public schools as “failure factories” 🙂
I could see mixing those two things up.
Also, stop saying they want to privatize the whole system, you conspiracy theorists! Just because they all say they want to privatize the whole system doesn’t mean that’s actually the goal:
Neerav Kingsland @NeeravKingsland Mar 12
Note: if charters ever want to be the whole system, they will have to back fill. Otherwise, where do kids who move into system mid-year go?
I’m relieved this problem of “where will the children go when public schools are gone?” is being think-tanked among unelected thought leaders at the national level. Thank God they’re planning ahead for our children! So thoughtful and generous of them.
I thought TN was headed into the third world with our lege & Commissioner if Education in lock step. The crazies sure do show grit & persistence for getting elected.
Yep, this is what passes for political discourse in OH. Instead of “What’s the Matter with Kansas” the author should have come here, there’s plenty of material: low information voters and pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps Republicans who come out in elections to vote for “change”. All in the year that redistricting locked a Republican majority in. If you’re a teacher and vote Republican in OH you have to be wearing a tinfoil hat.
According to Brenner’s logic we should see a boost in test scores in Crimea soon now that Putin is in charge.
Public education is not socialism, but even if it were, that term means many different things depending on a person’s country, socio-economic status, politics, and level of education.
So, even if it is “socialism”, SO WHAT . . ..
What’s wrong with socialism as it might be epressed and interpreted here in the United States. There is Chinese socialism, Soviet style socialism, and socialism as it has evolved here in America.
Andrew Brenner is a moron, but he’s a dangerous moron because he is in a position of power and is not accurately or truly representing what his contituents feel . . . .
I’m not sure how it is in Ohio, but public schools are in general technically not part of the government. They’re local public common trusts with their own elected officers and budgets.
I know they have some ‘government-like’ powers such as coercive taxing, but they’re no longer monopolies in most states, for example, which might justify limited claims to totalitarian socialism.
I think they could lose their coercive taxing powers by going back to the original system where they were supported by their own endowments or lands. There might be teachers trying to sneak in socialist or other agendas, but I don’t think that’s what this Ohio legislator is talking about. In any event, an educator should be able to present data on a variety of variety of social systems. Maybe in some cases the schools should be sold to private firms or become parent-run co-ops.
If these’re what this legislator means, he should talk about those topics. I think he’s just using a scare word for now.
“Stupid is as stupid does.”
This is straight from the Tea Party playbook. They tag virtually all social programs that promote the common good as “socialism,” and they call our corporate loving neo-liberal president a “Nazi” because of ObamaCare.
“Socialism” is the boogeyman to them. After World War II, many of the people whose lives and nations were directly impacted by Hitler and the Nazis developed policies that promote democratic socialism in their countries, including the Nordic countries, the UK and Israel. All we got are a lot of scaredy-cat, anti-social, hate-mongering, selfish wimps who blindly follow the lead of big business.
Rep Brenner stood up to the tea party wrt common core. So he threw them some token red meet–so what?
It makes sense that school buildings be used to provide a constitutionally adequate public education. Are teacher prep programs producing graduates prepared for that task? How would they know? When Ohioans pay for Horace Mann, they ought not receive John Dewey.